(CNN Spanish) – Argentina's Federal Criminal and Correctional Chamber 1 ordered the country's federal court on Monday to order the immediate arrest of Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro and Interior, Justice and Peace Minister Deostato Cabello. According to a decision published this Monday, the trial for crimes against humanity in the South American country.
An Argentine judge ordered the arrest of Maduro and Cabello, the two most powerful men in the Caribbean country, and Federal Court No. 2, to take inquiry reports from both the officers. Arrange his international capture through Interpol.
CNN reached out to the Venezuelan government for its reaction to the Argentine judiciary's decision, but has yet to receive a response.
Relatives of victims in Venezuela and the Clooney Foundation for Justice filed a complaint in 2023. In addition, it was supported by Amnesty International and is the first agreed action against Maduro and members of his government, who have been tried since November 2021 by the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court for possible crimes against humanity during the repression. Protests in 2017
However, the move has a more limited scope and does not mean that Maduro, who has ruled Venezuela since early 2013, will be seriously questioned by the international community after the presidential election last July.
Venezuela's president was declared the winner of those elections by the Chavismo-controlled National Electoral Council, but the organizing center and polling station did not provide detailed results. The majority of the opposition gathered evidence that its candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia, won a landslide victory.
In the first instance, the case heard in Argentina was archived, but the High Court ordered it reopened due to “universal jurisdiction” over this type of crime.
Argentina has a history of prosecutions of this style, including one opened in Spain in 2010 for crimes against humanity committed by the Franco regime. The investigation has now been going on for 14 years, and despite reports from victims' relatives, an arrest of a leader has never been achieved to move the process forward.
The investigation was encouraged by Argentine officials such as Waldo Wolff, Minister of Defense for the City of Buenos Aires. Also, Javier Mili's Defense Minister Patricia Bulrich attended the hearing in which the arrest request was made against Maduro.
This fact adds a new chapter of tension in the history of crossovers between Javier Mili and Nicolás Maduro.
Last Wednesday, Venezuela's Attorney General, Tarek William Saab, said he would seek an arrest warrant against Argentina's President Javier Mille, his sister and the president's general secretary, Carina Mille, and the minister. Defense, Patricia Bullrich. He was charged with aggravated robbery, among other crimes, for hijacking a plane from the Venezuelan state company Emtrasur.
The Argentine government denied the allegations and even presidential spokesman Manuel Atorni characterized them as “depressing”.
